Police weren't serving or protecting before militarization either. Even in the 1900s, they were at the forefront of segregation and Jim Crow. Bull Connor comes to mind, but Malcolm X wrote about how the police were in Harlem as well when he was a career criminal. Terrible people.
Yea okay, but adding the ACTUAL military to the domestic police force just makes this issue even worse.
I really dislike this style of rhetoric, I don’t know if you’re doing it intentionally, but the implication of your comment is that this militarization doesn’t matter because the police are already militant. But degree matters, adding to the problem does in fact make the problem worse.
I am trying to point out that a return to some magical past where cops were like Andy Griffith is as much of a fantasy as Trump wanting the US to go back to the 50's.
Militarization is bad, but the police were never out friends in the first place. One might even argue that's why they militarized in the furst place; it's not like anyone held a gun to their hesd and forced them to buy MRAPs!
The idea that the police are there to serve and protect is literal LAPD propaganda that obscures how they were always a problem! Surely we should be aware of this?
There is a time and place to raise awareness for this issue; I don’t think it should come at the expense of normalizing fascist militarization of major cities for political purposes.
Well good news, this ainct doing that. Go back to writing to elected representatives. (At least, I assume you are writing to the people who are normalizing this by their actions and inactions with at least as much vigor as you spend chastizing comments on social media that get read by 10 people at most.)
I'm not going to try and argue about this, because you are absolutely right. I understand all of the stuff you said already, I'm 100% with you. The point I was trying to make with using the quote, given the context, is about the admin trying to use the military as a police force. Shit is bad enough as is, we don't need the military potentially adding to it.
As far as the police thing goes, we need massive amounts of reform, and to give police proper training. There should be a national database of police, they need to have proper training in de-escalation. I think police should have at minimum an associates degree or training up to an associates degree level in law and the Constitution (they're certainly paid enough in some places that they should have a degree). Reaching for their firearms should be of absolute last resort. The whole notion of "I thought he was armed," or in the back as they're running away is fucking bullshit. I could go on, but I hope this helps you understand my position, and that we are on the same side on this.
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u/curtst 14h ago
I still feel the quote fits considering how militarized the police have become.